Gorakhpur tragedy: Congress vows to fight till victims get justice, accuses UP govt of not taking responsibility

Lucknow: Accusing the Yogi Adityanath government of not accepting responsibility on the issue pertaining to the death of children in a Gorakhpur hospital, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar said on Wednesday that his party will fight till the victims get justice. The state Congress chief, who was addressing a press conference, said his party was on the streets fighting, not for votes, but for the truth. [caption id=“attachment_3938215” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Raj Babbar was detained during a protest in Lucknow. PTI[/caption] Chief Minister Adityanath, he said, was not ready to accept that shortage of oxygen in the hospital had led to the deaths. Babbar also said that his party will take up constructive works to help people in the affected areas. It will donate ten ambulances to the BRD medical college hospital which will visit different areas for preventive programmes and also ferry patients, he said. Around 100 Sewa Dal workers, in coordination with district administration, will carry out a cleanliness drive and the medical cell of the party will set up a help-desk for the benefit of the people, Babbar said. On Chief Minister Adityanath regretting that lack of hygiene was a cause behind the spread of the disease, he said Gorakhpur could not be cleaned despite the fact that the Lok Sabha seat had been with Yogi and his guru since 1989. And that too after three years of the prime minister’s ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, he said. Responding to a question, Babbar said that no one in the government, whosoever he might be, had the right to “deprive mothers of their innocent children”. Commenting on the the prime minister’s address to the nation on Independence Day, he said it reflected “insensitivity” when he just touched the topic referring to it as a natural calamity. Congress leader Pramod Tewari, who was also present, targeted BJP president Amit Shah over his comments on the Gorakhpur tragedy. On 14 August, in Bengaluru, BJP President Amit Shah had dismissed the Congress’ demands for resignation of Adityanath over the death of several children in Gorakhpur, saying that such tragedies had happened during the Opposition party’s rule also. Earlier in the day, Babbar was held as he tried to go towards the secretariat annexe singing Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram to commemorate the attack on Mahatma Gandhi on 16 August, 1947. He and a number of other party leaders were later released.